Once
by Grace Callaghan Turner
Summary: Captain Jack Sparrow had happiness, a wife, a daughter, once..


**Captain Jack Sparrow had happiness, a wife, a daughter, once..  
**

* * *

A piercing scream filled the air. A daughter. The daughter of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Jack's wife dropped onto the feather pillows placed behind her. Her dark hair sprawled out. The sheets on the bed were covered with blood.

The midwife wrapped the child in a blanket and placed it in Jack's arms.

"Rose..we have a daughter.." The wails from the child faded as Jack spoke. "What shall we call her?"

Rose took in a ragged breath. "Cora." A small smile made its way onto Rose's pale face, at the sight of Jack and their first child.

"Perfect." Jack grinned at his sleeping daughter; a few of his silver teeth showing. Rose closed her deep blue eyes. Jack could almost get lost in them.

Jack placed Cora in a little crib in the corner of the room. He had made it himself. He carved the wood from a cedar tree into a crib and painted it black. Black as ebony and painted white swirls on the wood. White as the pale moon Jack had first met Rose under. The sheets were a pale pink, and a teddy bear was in the corner. Jack had been so sure that it would be a girl, and he had been right.

He walked back over to the bed. "Rose." He shook her arm gently. No response. "Rose? Rose! No, no, no!" He shook harder. But her eyes stayed closed, and hands limp on the bed. Jack didn't want to believe it.

His beautiful wife, dead? She was merely 19, him 20. They had gotten married only 10 months earlier. It was much to soon for his beautiful, loving wife to leave him.

It had been many years since Jack had last cried. Tears came in waves. Thick, hot ones. Jack kissed her forehead, then the top of her hand.

"I'll love you til' the day I die." He managed to choke out.

* * *

Jack buried Rose at sea. She had told him to, in case something went wrong. His crew placed her into a light coffin, but Jack was the one to let her go. He pushed the coffin off and it landed in the sea with a splash.

That day, the sea was a deep blue, just like Rose's eyes. The clouds were like the Captain's mood. Dark, moody and sad.

Jack turned around, grabbed his daughter, and locked himself in his cabin. Jack never looked back.

Jack's first and only love was the sea.

* * *

Jack found a compartment in his cabin with milk. Enough for a few months. A note was placed in with it.

_Just in case.._

Jack stared at his daughter. She had dark brown eyes, and fuzzy brown hair adorned her head. Jack loved her so much.

He rarely slept. Cora kept him up late into the night. Jack decided he may as well stay up, since it seemed as though she never stopped crying.

As first mate, Barbossa took care of the _Pearl. _Jack trusted him. One of Jack's closest friends, William Turner, or more commonly known as Bootstrap Bill, came in every once in awhile. Bill helped tend to Cora, as he was the only person Jack would allow even close to his daughter let alone touch her.

One day, when Cora was about a month old, Bill told him, "Jack, you NEED rest. You look like somebody bloody beat you up! I will take Cora. I swear on me life, I'll take care of 'er."

Jack just nodded and landed on his bed with a big sigh. Within minutes he was asleep. A slight snore came from the lump on the bed.

Bill chuckled and brought Cora into his own cabin, so Jack could sleep in peace. Bill placed her on his bed and watched over her.

The Captain slept for over 12 hours. Nobody dared to disturb him, for they all knew, he needed it.

* * *

At the age of 2, Cora learned how to walk and talk, Jack was never far off when she was walking.

At the age of 5, she handled her first sword. Wooden of course. Jack taught her the basics, such as the proper stance.

At the age of 7, she began to learn about how a ship works. Jack taught her how to tie up the sails and steer the ship.

At the age of 10, Jack gave Cora her first real sword. Soon enough, she was as good a sword-fighter as her father.

* * *

**6 years after Cora turned 10..**

Jack pulled his daughter through Tortuga. Angry shouts could be heard from behind them.

"I'm going to kill him!"

"Death is coming, Sparrow!"

"I'm going to carve out your guts and eat them for breakfast!" Jack grimaced at that one.

They cornered them in an alley. Food scraps, ale, and rum bottles littered the ground.

A man pulled out his pistol. He aimed it right at Jack's chest and cocked it. "We got ya this time, Sparrow!"

_Damn it! _Jack thought. He had left his sword and pistol back on the _Pearl._ Jack had always thought himself prepared, but unfortunately, his luck seemed to have run out right then.

Cora stood beside him, a strait face stared at the men.

The man put his finger on the trigger, "Good-bye, Sparrow."

"Dad, look out!" Just as the trigger was pulled, Cora shoved Jack over. He fell to the ground. The bullet struck Cora right in the middle of her chest.

The men laughed and left, leaving Jack with his wounded daughter.

Jack scrambled up just in time to catch her. He lowered her to the ground and ripped a piece of cloth off of his shirt. He placed it over the wound; blood covered his fingers.

"Dad...no.." Cora put her hand on his. "I'm dying..I can feel it.." She spat blood out.

"No..no.." Jack shook his head; tears threatened to fall. "We're gonna get you back to the _Pearl, _and we're gonna get you better. Then we'll sail every ocean there is."

A tear leaked out of Cora's right eye. "I wish we..could do that.." She gasped in a breath with difficulty. "I..love you..I'll give Mum..a kiss for you.."

"No..no..Cora! Stay with me! Don't leave me..." But her chest stopped moving, eyes stopped seeing, heart stopped beating.

"I love you too, Cora.." He kissed her forehead. "Forever and always."

* * *

Cora and Rose were never far from Jack's mind. Jack eventually killed the men who shot her. But they still were there, when he was rescuing Miss Swann\Turner. Or when Davy Jones stabbed Will_, _they flashed before his eyes.

Sometimes, he could hear them speak to him. _Do the right thing.. _or _I love you.._

In fact, when he was dying, his thoughts were of Rose and Cora only.

"I'm coming.." Jack whispered with his last breath.


End file.
